Intentions to Marry, 1884

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840396, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 046

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 March 1884 Registrar Arthur Chellas Henderson

Date of Notice

Names and Surnames of Parties

BDM Match

Condition

Calling or Profession

Age

Dwelling Place

Length of Residence

Marriage Place

Folio

Consent

Date of Certificate

Officiating Minister

4 January 1884

John Henry Miller
Edith Wixon

John Henry Miller
Edith Nixon
💍 1884/1781

Bachelor
Spinster

Sawyer
Dressmaker

26
19

Invercargill
Invercargill

9 years
3 years

At the house of the Registrar

84/1483

Henry Harper, Uncle

4 January 1884

The Revd D. Button, Primitive Methodist Church Minister

No	1
Date of Notice	4 January 1884
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry Miller	Edith Wixon
BDM Match (95%)	John Henry Miller	Edith Nixon
	💍 1884/1781
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sawyer	Dressmaker
Age	26	19
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	9 years	3 years
Marriage Place	At the house of the Registrar
Folio	84/1483
Consent	Henry Harper, Uncle
Date of Certificate	4 January 1884
Officiating Minister	The Revd D. Button, Primitive Methodist Church Minister

7 January 1884

Thomas Hickey
Mary Civarin

Thomas Hickey
Mary McGiveran
💍 1884/1823

Widower
Domestic

Surveyor Labourer
Servant

35
23

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
3 days

At the Roman Catholic Church

84/1492

7 January 1884

The Revd Thos McEnroe, Roman Catholic Church Minister

No	2
Date of Notice	7 January 1884
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Hickey	Mary Civarin
BDM Match (82%)	Thomas Hickey	Mary McGiveran
	💍 1884/1823
Condition	Widower	Domestic
Profession	Surveyor Labourer	Servant
Age	35	23
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	At the Roman Catholic Church
Folio	84/1492
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1884
Officiating Minister	The Revd Thos McEnroe, Roman Catholic Church Minister

9 January 1884

Frank McGovern
Annie Laughlin

Frank McGovern
Anne Laughlin
💍 1884/1834

Bachelor
Domestic

Hotel Keeper
Servant

29
21

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
3 days

At the Roman Catholic Church

84/1493

9 January 1884

The Revd Thos McEnroe, Roman Catholic Church Minister

No	3
Date of Notice	9 January 1884
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank McGovern	Annie Laughlin
BDM Match (96%)	Frank McGovern	Anne Laughlin
	💍 1884/1834
Condition	Bachelor	Domestic
Profession	Hotel Keeper	Servant
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	At the Roman Catholic Church
Folio	84/1493
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1884
Officiating Minister	The Revd Thos McEnroe, Roman Catholic Church Minister

16 January 1884

Joseph Seniar
Ann Cocino

Bachelor
Domestic

Labourer
Servant

24
23

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
3 days

At the Church of England

84/1489

16 January 1884

The Revd H. Stocker, Church of England Minister

No	4
Date of Notice	16 January 1884
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Seniar	Ann Cocino
Condition	Bachelor	Domestic
Profession	Labourer	Servant
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	At the Church of England
Folio	84/1489
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 January 1884
Officiating Minister	The Revd H. Stocker, Church of England Minister

21 January 1884

William Paterson
Ellen Welsh

William Paterson
Ellen Welsh
💍 1884/1843

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman
Servant

26
23

Invercargill
Invercargill

2 years
13 years

At the office of the Registrar

84/1496

21 January 1884

The Registrar, Invercargill

No	5
Date of Notice	21 January 1884
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Paterson	Ellen Welsh
	💍 1884/1843
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman	Servant
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	2 years	13 years
Marriage Place	At the office of the Registrar
Folio	84/1496
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1884
Officiating Minister	The Registrar, Invercargill

22 January 1884

Peter Bohan
Johanna Small

Peter Bohan
Johanna Small
💍 1884/1841

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

30
33

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 days
3 days

At the Roman Catholic Church

84/1494

22 January 1884

The Revd Thos McEnroe, Roman Catholic Church Minister

No	6
Date of Notice	22 January 1884
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Bohan	Johanna Small
	💍 1884/1841
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	30	33
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	At the Roman Catholic Church
Folio	84/1494
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 January 1884
Officiating Minister	The Revd Thos McEnroe, Roman Catholic Church Minister

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).